Strange Tales #30

From Atlas Comics' era of pre-Code suspense, Strange Tales #30 (July 1954) delivers an immediately gripping cover by Carl Burgos: a wide-eyed, green-tinged man recoils in pure terror from a dark, glowing box at his feet, cobwebs stretching across the crimson walls around him. The featured story teaser — "The Thing in the Box!" — says everything and nothing at once, leaving your imagination to fill in whatever horror that container might hold. It's a compact, expertly composed image of dread that captures exactly what Atlas did so well in 1954.